CII* Absorption in Damped Lyman Alpha Systems: (II) A New Window on the Star Formation History of the Universe

Abstract

Starting from the SFR per unit physical area, determined for DLAs using the C II* method, we obtain the SFR per unit comoving volume at $z$ $\approx$ 3, and find that it agrees with that for the Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs). Though the mass of produced stars indicated by the SFRs is consistent with the current densities of known stellar populations, the mass of metals produced by $z$=2.5 is 30 times larger than detected in absorption in DLAs. The most likely solutions to this ``missing metals'' problem is that star formation occurs in compact bulge regions. We search for evidence of feedback and find no correlations between the SFR per unit area and N(H I), but possible correlations between SFR per unit area and low-ion velocity width and SFR per unit area and metal abundance. We show that (a) the correlation between cooling rate and dust-to-gas ratio is positive evidence for grain photoelectric heating, (b) the CMB does not significantly populate the C II excited fine-structure states, and (c) the ratio of CII* to resonance-line optical depths is a sensitive probe of the multi-phase structure of the DLA gas. We address recent arguments that DLAs are comprised only of WNM gas, and show them to be inconclusive. Despite the rough agreement between SFR per unit comoving volume for DLAs and LBGs, current evidence indicates these are distinct populations.

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